Exam View: 06 May 2018 Current Affairs

Current Affair of 06 May 2018. Read Important Current Affairs for UPSC/SSC/Bank and other state exam

NATIONAL

GST Council simplifies return filing process

The GST Council has approved making the GST-Network (GSTN) a government entity by allowing the regime to take over the stake held by private entities. Post the deal, the central government will own 50 percent of the GSTN.
It will take about six month for GSTN to prepare for it so for that period the current arrangement of GSTR3B and GSTR 1 will continue. This will be the first phase of transition where the current system will continue for the next six months

Chhattisgarh to recruit transgender in police

The Chhattisgarh government has decided to recruit transgenders in its police force, in order to promote gender equality.
Chhattisgarh has become the first Indian state to do so. The state police have started conducting workshops to facilitate applications from the transgender community

Google to set up 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in AP

The Andhra Pradesh State government and Google India signed MoU to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to all villages, including remote tribal villages in the State. Google will set up 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots as part of the project.

In 2016, Google had installed public Wi-Fi networks at 100 railway stations and is now working to expand the project to as many as 400 stations by 2018 end.

Census of Indian Dolphin

For the conservation of Indus dolphins – one of the world’s rarest mammals – the Punjab government along with WWF-India are conducting the first organised census on their population.
Found only in India and Pakistan, the Indus dolphins are confined to only a 180-km stretch between Talwara and Harike Barrage in Beas river.

The most flourishing population of the Indus dolphin, platanista gangetica minor, is reportedly found across Pakistan where their numbers are estimated to be around 1,800 over a stretch of 1,500 km of the Indus River.

According to experts, they were also found in Sutlej decades back. However, river pollution is believed to be the major cause of extinction of the species from the habitat.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) suspects that the population size of the Indus river dolphins has reduced by more than 50 per cent since 1944.

Only 1,816 dolphins are reported to exist presently in the lower parts of the Indus River.

INTERNATIONAL

California’s economy is world’s 5th biggest

California’s economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest economy.

NASA blasts off Mars-bound spacecraft, InSight

NASA yesterday(5 May) blasted off its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet.
The spacecraft was launched atop an Atlas V rocket at 1635 hrs (IST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
If all goes as planned, the lander is expected to settle on the Red Planet on November 26.
Its name, InSight, is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.
The spacecraft was initially supposed to launch in 2016 but had to be delayed after temperature tests showed a problem with part of the seismometer, which engineers have since fixed.
InSight aims to be the first NASA spacecraft to land on Mars since the Curiosity rover in 2012.

LIFE

Human-Animal Conflict

Recently, Wildlife Society of Odisha (WSO), in collaboration with Wildlife Protection Society of India and Elephant Family has released a data about human animal conflict, especially Human-elephant conflicts.

Since 1990, nearly 1,400 elephants have died because of human-animal conflict, of which 591 died in the last eight years.

The number of human-elephant encounters has gone up from 107 in 2014 to 120 in 2017-18 in the state.

Shortage of fodder in the natural forests is the main reason for elephants venturing into human habitations.

The shortage happens primarily due to large-scale felling of trees for timber, forest fires, rampant harvesting of fruits in summer, and cutting off fodder creepers like Siali.

Uropeltis bhupathyi

Uropeltis bhupathyi is the latest addition to the snake fauna of the Western Ghats.

It has been named Uropeltis bhupathyi , after the late herpetologist S. Bhupathy, for his contributions to the field.

They are non-venomous, burrowing and mostly earthworm-eating.

They are called shieldtails after the large, flat tips of their tails, which make them appear almost sliced off.

The discovery has taken the number of known species of shieldtails in India to 41.